DirectStorage offers massive transfer speed improvements over traditional storage methods

Why it matters: Microsoft’s DirectStorage API promises to bring PCs load times closer to what Xbox Series console and PlayStation 5 users have experienced for two years. The first game supporting DirectStorage is preparing to launch, and a benchmark shows real performance gains on retail hardware.

Tests from PC Games Hardware show that Microsoft’s DirectStorage API can help NVMe SSDs load assets up to 38% faster than SATA SSDs. They also offer the enormous advantages of GPU-based decompression over CPU decompression. This means that your game will load faster and run smoother than ever before!

The site found that loading times for the SATA SSD were about the same as for the PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD, but that the PCIe 4.0 NVMe offered a significant speed boost. decompression speeds between the three GPUs and the CPU were also compared, with the Radeon RX 7900 XT coming out on top.

The chart below displays the transfer rate of each hardware configuration in GB/s, showing the mean result out of five tests. The NVMe SSDs ran several times faster than the SATA SSD here, and PCIe 4.0 had a slight advantage over PCIe 3.0. The A770 also outperforms the RX 7900 XT and 4080 in GPU decompression despite being in a lower weight class for game performance.

The demo shows that decompressing assets on the CPU takes longer and uses more CPU power than decompressing on the GPU. This is because the GPU can decompress assets faster and with less CPU utilization.

The early results of the demo are promising for hardware that is outside of Microsoft’s labs. Furthermore, the demo shows a huge turnaround from 2020 tests. The 2020 tests showed that recent games don’t fully utilize the bandwidth advantages of NVMes over SATA drives.

DirectStorage promises to improve loading times for 3D game environments. The feature will debut in Square Enix’s Forspoken, which launches on January 24.

At GDC in March, Square Enix revealed that Forspoken can load new scenes and environments in less than two seconds on an NVMe SSD, compared to several seconds on a SATA SSD and almost half a minute on an HDD. Microsoft designed the new API for use on Windows 11; however, due to Windows 10’s legacy storage stack, it will only see limited benefits.

Source: TechSpot